Rice Farmer

Chronicling the decline of industrial civilization

Thursday, May 31, 2007

The Race for Resources

No matter what the US government says, the real reason for creating AFRICOM is evident: The Chinese are buying up Africa, and the US Empire wants to counter that. It’s just another chapter in the age-old contest to control the world and its resources.

Wednesday, May 30, 2007

Wimps for Peace

Senator Jim DeMintsaid that “wimps” are partly responsible for war casualties. “Al-Qaida knows that we’ve got a lot of wimps in Congress,” said DeMint, who apparently is unaware that AQ is a CIA asset.

In a similar accusation of abject wimpery, as reported by Wayne Madsen, Cheney called Bush a “wimp,” apparently because Bush is hesitating to bomb Iran. How President Macho, who tries hard to project an aura of tough-as-nails masculinity, will deal with this affront is certainly a topic of intense speculation among political pundits. He might call for nuking Iran, or he might just punch Cheney in his pacemaker.

In the US, as everyone knows, tough-guy elites start and win wars by sending innocent people to spill their guts on the battlefield. People who talk peace are wimps.

Thursday, May 24, 2007

Terror and French Fries

Just for taking photos of some french fries (or are they supposed to be “freedom fries”?), a person is treated like a terrorist. Ridiculous, you say. It certainly is, but that is the way it’s supposed to be in today’s world. The “war on terror” has got the population terrorized, which was the whole idea. You are supposed to check for terrorists under your bed before going to sleep at night, and willingly divulge all your personal information to help the authorities root out the terrorists. Soon, taking pictures of food will be a federal offense. Get used to it.

Twins Still Not in Iraq

Monday, May 21, 2007

Other Stuff Takes a Back Seat to Gasoline

We are now told that gasoline is even more expensive than when it was during the 1981 oil shock. And higher prices are just getting started! Apparently — and predictably — consumers are delaying purchases of Other Stuff, or just not buying Other Stuff, in order to free up more money for gas.

The Other Stuff, whether goods or services, is sold by businesses that also need consumers to purchase their offerings, or they’ll go belly-up. But consumers are nearly belly-up themselves, and so the purveyors of Other Stuff have to wait, or just give up hope. People selling big-screen TVs and other consumer electronics, those who need travelers and vacationers to come by car and spend money (restaurants, motels, amusement parks, etc.), and in fact people dealing in everything else but vehicle fuel (i.e., Other Stuff) — these people are all going to be squeezed harder and harder as gas gets more expensive. And when the breaking point comes, businesses dealing in Other Stuff are going to disappear beneath the waves. That will, of course, help precipitate economic collapse.

The only way to keep the petroleum economy going is to maintain the flow of cheap and plentiful hydrocarbons. That allows people to fill their tanks and buy Other Stuff, i.e., to have their cake and eat it, too. Our man W is trying hard to liberate Iraq’s oil for American use, but it’s a going to be a while yet before Iraq’s oil flows liberally, if at all.

So the oil companies are doing well, but businesses selling Other Stuff had better steel themselves for the inevitable crunch.

Sunday, May 20, 2007

Top 25 Censored Stories of 2007

Welcome to the Age of Energy Wars

This editorial says that Americans will be paying not just $4/gallon for gas, but $5 and even higher. It goes on to say:

We need gas to get to work, to take the kids to school, (or more accurately put in their cars so they can drive to school), to shop, to live. We depend on our vehicles here in the rural areas where there is no public transportation.

And not only that. Everything you can imagine, from food on down, is transported by truck. The editorialist is right: people in the US — and other countries with oil-dependent economies — will pay until they are squeezed dry and the petroleum economy collapses. They have no choice.

Now you know why the US is in Iraq, and why the Age of Energy Wars is just getting started. Modern economies won’t run without cheap and plentiful energy. But with that harder and harder to come by, the situation is getting desperate. Stay tuned as more blood is shed for energy.

Cashing in on 9/11

Idiot Bush Out of the Loop

Under intense pressure from the US, Japan has reluctantly agreed to allow “triangular mergers.” When Japan’s Prime Minister Abe mentioned this to Bush, the alleged leader of the free world asked what a triangular merger is. Bush was not only unaware of the strong US government demand that Japan allow these mergers, he also didn’t even know what the term meant!

Beginning with 9/11 — when the people who really run the US kept Bush out of the way by making him read about a pet goat and then shuttling him around the country all day — Bush has been wandering around in a fog, unaware of what’s really happening, and living the life of a useful idiot puppet.

Tuesday, May 08, 2007

9/11 Hijackings: A Farfetched Story

9/11 researcher David Ray Griffin has corrected some research errors he made regarding Barbara Olson’s alleged call, but at the same time shows that the scenario is nevertheless highly implausible. I would like to add one more thing which makes the whole “boxcutter” story even more implausible.

Naturally people are going to be afraid of a hijacker wielding a knife or boxcutter. If you get cut or stabbed in the wrong place, it could mean your life. But knives and boxcutters are no match for a more powerful weapon that all the passengers on those flights had at their disposal: luggage. Think about this for a moment. Let’s say you are a hijacker armed with a knife or boxcutter, waving it around frantically and threatening passengers with mortal wounds. Now suddenly, you are rushed by a group of desperate and enraged passengers swinging and throwing items of luggage taken from overhead compartments (anyone who flies knows that people put quite large and heavy items in those compartments). How long are you going to last with your boxcutter? You would be down for the count in a matter of seconds.

The more you think about it, the more improbable and incredible this story gets.

Sunday, May 06, 2007

Propagandists Get Better Information Access

Since Dubya took up residence in the White House, the degree of secrecy has steady climbed, and now all kinds of information previously available to the public have been put under lock and key for reasons such as “national security.” But the authorities give privileged information access to some people who serve their interests, such as media propagandists.

For example, thanks to Charles Goyette we found out that the editors of Popular Mechanics got access to 9/11-related information which untermenschen like us are not permitted to see.

And now we find that champion of investigative journalism Judith Miller was given access to secret documents by the New York Police Department. Why? because like Popular Mechanics, Miller is arguing the authorities’ case.

As Goyette observed, there is a class system at work in which certain privileged people get access to secret documents, and the rest of us don’t.

Near-Future Society

What will near-future society be like in countries like the US and UK? Children of Men gives us a likely glimpse of what is in store for us: a dystopian fascist, panopticon police-state society which is so rabidly xenophobic that foreigners are considered to be threatening trash, caged like animals, and coolly murdered. They are shipped off to ghetto-like enclaves that are themselves under assault. Meanwhile, non-foreigners live in fear and must constantly be ready to prove they are “citizens.”

Is this where the “war on terror” is leading? We won’t have long to find out.

Saturday, May 05, 2007

Only the Lunatic Fringe Believes Bush

I have long held that the few people who still believe Bush’s incredible 9/11 story are the lunatic fringe, and here is more evidence of that. Citizen and professional researchers have shot that fable so full of holes that one literally has to be either nuts or in total denial to keep believing it.